Grants talk:PEG/WM NO/christmas seminar and wlm ceremony

Dinner

I am a bit worry about the cost of Christmas Dinner - This is 62% of the cost. Is it really necessary? Maybe some snacks during meeting would be enough? In order to make WLM prize celebration and have some talks with GLAM institutions do you really need such a dinner? The media awareness of WLM and collaboration with GLAMs could be more effectively achieved by organizing press conference... Moreover Christmas is a Christian religious holiday - as Wikimedia movement should be neutral toward religions I am not quite sure if it is good idea to mix Wikimedia event with Christmas dinner. Polimerek (talk) 19:52, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi Polimerek. First of all, sorry for the late reply. We have had a substantial meeting with a WMNO partner today that required much preparations. I understand from your questions here that there are obviously some misunderstandings and some need from my side of clarification:

First of all, the dinner already took place at December 14, 2012. So, I am afraid it is impossibly to revert and change the menu. The seminar in the form of prepared speeches by Oslo Museum, Arts Council Norway, WMNO and the National Antiquarian, was convined with a finalizing dinner. In Norway, "Julebord" is a > 3.000 year old tradition that everyone adhere to, you go to "julebord" with your workplace colleagues, your study mates, and friends. People eat either pork flesh, sheep rib, or a special cod dish. It is a splendid way of attracting and awarding members and volunteers after a successful year, and celebrating five WLM winners who came from near and far.

A press conference, I am afraid, is not the way to round off the year for our members, I mean, we also did press work and had two press statements out, but members do not convene for press briefings. A press briefing is one thing, a seminar with the WLM ceremony is something else. When it comes to the statement media awareness of WLM and collaboration with GLAMs could be more effectively achieved by organizing press conference, I am afraid I will have to fundamentally disagree. You never get press coverage in Norway through a press conference, unless you are the prime minister or there has been some sort of disaster. Never.

Christmas ("Julebord") is not a Christian holiday. In Norway, the very word "Jul" (Jol) derives from the tradition of "Midtvintersblot" which is more than 3.000 years old. Durting the winter, when snow is bound to lay for another 4-5 months, old tradition is to slaughter the pig and eat it for about a week before and after Jol (Midtvintersblot). This has nothing to do with Christianity, Very few, if at all any, of the participants have any particular christian belief, and there was (of course) no mention, act or statement of any kind relating to any religion.

Kind regards, Bjoertvedt (talk) 19:49, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Dates, cost and mismatches

I'm not really worried about Chirstmas dinner being mixed with a WLM ceremony, it's up to the chapter I think to decide this matter. I'm more interested about the provisional target start and ending date, already due, the mismatch between 5 travels for the winners but only 4 hotel rooms (one is staying on his own?), also de dinner seems to much for $96 per person, but Norway is expensive. And an aproximate conversion fee would be apreciated, to be able to easily convert how much is being projected to spend in what...--3BRBS (talk) 13:47, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi 3BRBS! yes, your are right about the "mismatch" - one of the winners (Atle Abelsen) is resident in Akershus, the county that surrounds Oslo, with a 30 minutes travel to downtown. So, he did not need to stay at any hotel. That was the winners of the "peoples prize" (i.e., decided at the signpost by referendum). The winners of the jury prizes as such, are given below with approximate one-way travel distance to Oslo:

• Simen Wright. Porsgrun, 150 km (3 hours) from Oslo.
• Helge Hognerud. Odda, Hardanger, 700 km (10 hours) from Oslo.
• Junjun Guo. Bø i Telemark, 200 km (3 hours) from Oslo.
• Rune Halvorsen. Bjugn, 700 km (8 hours) from Oslo.
• The fifth winner lives in the Netherlands and did not show up.

96 dollars per person for a dinner is about as cheap as you can get it over here, including dessert. I am sorry, but Oslo is the most expensive city on earth, fighting anually with Tokyo and Zürich over that dubious position.

You are quite right that the submission was done after the event - the preparation and organization simply took so much effort (together with full-time work at daytime) that the submission had to wait this time.

Kind regards, Bjoertvedt (talk) 19:59, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to respond!--3BRBS (talk) 02:54, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Dates

Thanks for the submission. First, it's a little bit odd to me that the dates mentioned in the request have already expired (it mentions 14 and 15 December, though it's 19 December already). So, did these events already take place or the dates given are mistaken? Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:51, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi, see answer above. The submission was done after the event, from the reasons stated. Kind regards, Bjoertvedt (talk) 20:00, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Copy-edited, need clarifications, context

I've copy-edited parts of it. Please check that I haven't inadvertently changed any intended meanings.

I shouldn't have to correct typos, BTW. Spelling and grammar, sure (mine needs correction too); but please take care.

What is "geodata-baes". Is that meant to be "base"?

"Galme rådhus"—can't find it on the Norwegian WP (a link would have been good, or a few words explaining. Is it Gamle rådhus? Another typo?

I have the same issues as Polimerek and Kiril. Tony (talk) 07:51, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Dates and context

Ni! I'm also confused about the context (no links to anything) and dates (in the past). Still, I wish you had/have a merry christmas seminar ;) --Solstag (talk) 03:54, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi, yes we conviened 35 people including 5 from Arts Council Norway, 1 from Oslo Museum, 1 from the National Culture Museum, 1 from the National Antequarian, 7 WLM winners (incl family), and approximately 20-25 Wikipedia volunteers / WMNO members. All volunteers who weren't already members, joined the chapter the same day. The conclusions from the Arts Council Norway session was that they will apply grants for another year of projects. Last year we had 35 editing courses in October and November (only), and we can read that in the meta wiki-statistics as a sharp increase in the number of new wikipedians and new editing volunteers (>5). Kind regards, Bjoertvedt (talk) 20:04, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Costs

Travel costs have thus far been much less than budgeted, because most WLM winners have been generous enough to not present their travel charges (yet, at least). I can understand if you find Oslo expensive. Among fixed costs, the location cost us 6.000 NOK in a flat fee to stage the full event, and the WLM prizes were NOK 4000+2000, and EUR 255 (gift card for the dutch winner). The hotel was approximately NOK 4000. Including travel our fixed WLM-related costs before dinner were minimum NOK 18.000. Reading the budget in the submission, I realize that we have fully forgotten to include the costs of the prizes given to the WLM 2012 winners, this has been added. Those winners who did not get gift-cards, received four compact photo cameras that we got for free from Canon in Norway. In addition, it would be fully possible to follow some kind of norm on meals. But just remember, Oslo is above New York City on the U.S. federal per diem chart - so familiar standards are hard to apply fully. Kind regards, Bjoertvedt (talk) 20:18, 17 January 2013 (UTC)